Snow-removal apparatus



Oct. 23, 1945.

w. M. VENABLE SNOW-REMOVAL APPARATUS Filed May 16, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet l6 m M m a M Oct. 23, 1945. wqm. VENABLE SNOW-REMOVAL APPARATUS Filed May16, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR W/W/S'mMVe/ b/e A Oct. 23, 1945. w MLE 2,387,423

SNOW-REMOVAL APPARATUS Filed May 16, 1944 v 3 Sheets-8119a; 3

J9 20 I 1 J 1' 0 J INVENTOR Patented Oct. 23, 1945 SNOW-REMOVALAPPARATUS I William Mayo Venable, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Blaw-KnoxCompany, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of New Jersey Application May16, 1944, Serial No. 535,827

Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in snow-removal apparatus,particularly to devices of the type in which a rotating thrower memberis mounted to revolve between and on the same axis as two feeder screwconveyors designed to convey snow into the rotating thrower member fromeither or each side thereof.

In such devices thesnow is thrown upward at or near to the middle of therotor, and a deflector or a chute is provided to divert it toward eitherside of the roadway or path to be cleared, or into vehicles to beloaded. Such chutes or deflectors willbe used in connection with theimprovements to be described, but the construction thereof forms nopartof the invention to be claimed herein. As examples of snow-throwingdevices having a thrower axially mounted on the same axis as conveyormembers to feed snow 3 thereto may be instanced Patent 1,638,708 to F.

Saxon and Patent 2,200,623 to N. S. James.

This general arrangement of conveyor and thrower elements possesses theadvantage of greater simplicity of construction than other types of snowthrowers in which there is a rotor to throw the snow and other rotorsnot coaxial with the thrower rotorto feed the snow thereto. But machinesof this general type as hitherto constructed have had the followingdisadvantageous features in actual performance.

(a) The amount of power required to operate them is large in comparisonwith the useful work performed, as measured by the weight of snow throwna given height or distance.

(1)) Snow, especially, when it is moist, tends to pack, and bulldoze infront of the machine inw stead of entering the thrower.

pens the truck pushing the machine forward stalls, and the bank of snowformed in front of c the machine thereafter is more difiicult to handle.

When this hap- (c) The snow handled by such machines usually has beenwindrowed by snowplows of other types, and has been somewhat compactedthereby, or by traffic. Machines of this type tend to ride upon the snowinstead of cutting it away down to or near to the pavement level.

The primary objects of this invention are to improve the eiiiciencyandcapacity of machines ,of this type, to prevent bulldozing, and to cutthe snow to a lower and more uniform grade.

Other objects are to render the machine more easily guided, and toregulate the elevation of the snow-cutting elements above the earth, or

pavement from which snow is to be removed.

Minor objects will be apparent to those familiarwith this art, and withthe minor difllculties encountered in it, some of which arise from thevery wide variation in weight of snow per unit volume, compactness andmoisture content. The machines should, preferably, be able to handlesnow of any consistency at any atmospheric temperature.

The accompanying drawings show one form of this invention which wasbuilt for the purpose of trying out in actual operation the featuresclaimed herein, and to determine their merit by comparison with otherapparatus. The drawings show all of the features claimed, operatively,but do not indicate proportions of parts or desirable features ofstructural design necessary in a, commercial machine.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a side elevation, showing in outline the entire device,including an engine for operating the snow-throwing apparatus;

Figure 2 is a plan view with the engine omitted for clearness;

Figure 2A is a partial plan view showing a portion of Figure 2 toenlarged scale;

Figure 2B isa front elevation of the parts shown in Figure 2A;

Figure 3 is a front elevation;

Figure 4 is a section through the thrower portion of the rotor along theplane of line IV-IV of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a view of the rotor showing one pair of conveyor screwsoppositely disposed, other conveyor screws being omitted for simplicityof showing; and

Figure 6 is a sectional view through a pair of the vertical frontcutters shown in elevation and plan in Figures 1 and 2. r

Referring for the present to Figures 1 and 2, wherein the generalassembly is shown, I represents a frame to which all the parts of thedevice are attached or mounted. The frame I is supported upon fourcasters two near its rear, desig nated by 2, and two supporting itsforward portion, designated by3. The casters 3 are capable of verticaladjustment, to be described more fully, so that the front portion of themachine, which is to engage the snow to be handled, may be raised orlowered to give it any desired clearance above the road or pavement uponwhich the machine is to operate. 7

The rotor which both conveys the snow laterally and throws it verticallyis designated in general by 4. As shown in the plan, Figure 2, itslength is almost as great as the maximum width of the machine. In amachine intended to work on highways this width is usually fixed eightfeet. The width may be whatever is desired, as the proper performance ofthe machine does not depend upon the ratio of length to diameter of thismember.

In Figure 2 the forward portions of helical conveyor flights or screws 5are shown on one side of the machine, where not covered by a casing 5aenclosing the rear portions thereof. On the other side, they are omittedto show the tube 6 to which they are secured. In Figure 5 the sameelement, the rotor 4, is shown with driving sprockets 1 and 8 attachedbut with only one pair of screws. The shaft supporting the rotor isdesignated by 9 and the bearings at the end by ID. Except for its ends,the shaft is enclosed by the tube 6.

In Figure 5 and also in Figure 3, the rotor is shown with only onescrewon each end, so that the pitch may be more readily observed; but inFigure 2 three pairs of screws are shown, and are likewise indicated inFigure 4. The number of screws on the conveyor portions of the rotor isoptional.

The rotor shaft 9 turns in the bearings i0, secured to the frame I inany suitable manner. Ball or roller bearings are preferred. The rotor isdriven by a sprocket chain about th sprocket wheel I, from a sprocketwheel II, on the shaft of the engine l2. The sprocket chain pitch linesare indicated by broken lines, and the ratios of teeth in the sprocketsare such as to give the rotor the desired speed at normal engine speed.It will be understood that intermediat gearing, clutches andtransmissions may be introduced, such as good engineering practice mayrequire, for machines of larger capacity. In the machine built accordingto the drawings, no intermediate clutches were necessary, and themachine required no elements not shown.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the forward half of the rotor is open andfree to engage snow, except at the middle portions, where the front andtop are closed, as shown in Figures 2, 2B and 4, except for an outletopening I4 through which the snow is to be discharged upward. The frontclosure is represented by I5. In Figure 3 the front casing of the middleof the rotor is concealed by the vertical cutters in front of it, butthis casing is wider at the top than at the bottom as seen in Figure 2B,

Asshown in Figures 2, 3 and 5, the conveyor screws 5 terminate at theirends in discs 16. The length of rotor between these discs is all thatcan engage the snow. The driving sprocket I is protected from snow bythe plate I! and the side of the machine is protected from snow by theplate I8, which also forms part of the support for the casing and othermechanism. In Figure 2 the top is shown open, but a. cover may beprovided. It is omitted from the drawings for the sake of clarity.

If the plate I! had nothing ahead of it, it would push into and pack thesnow in front of it, which is very undesirable. The usual expedientadopted to cover the space required for the drive of a horizontal rotor,whether by sprocket or gear connections, is to provide a wedge-shapedmember in front of these parts. This mitigates, but does not eliminatethe tendency to pack the snow and to stall the machine.

Although a wedge-shaped side cutting edge may be used without sacrificeof other features of this invention, the use of wedge-shaped dividingmembers at both sides and middle (in front of by trafllc regulations,and is limited to about,

closure I5) has been found unsatisfactory, result' ing in bothbulldozing the snow in front of the machine and causing the machine toride up in front, upon packed snow, instead of cutting it away. In thisinvention, this defect is eliminated by the vertical cutter members 18and 20 which may be used both at sides and in the middle, or

at the middle only if desired; but in the middle these cutters orsomething equivalent to them must .be employed to make the machineeffective and efficient when operating in wet, packed, or windrowedsnow. The upper ends of cutters I! are journaled in blocks secured toplates l8 and the upper ends of cutters 20 in blocks secured to a beam|8a extending between the plates l8.

As a convenient means of operating these'vertical cutters in a smallmachine, I have used the transmission indicated in the drawings,although in much larger machines other transmissions may be preferable.The sprocket wheel 8 is near the end of the rotor opposite sprocketwheel 'I, by which the rotor is driven. From sprocket wheel 8 a chaindrive turns a sprocket wheel 21 on a jackshaft 22, as shown in Figure 1,and another sprocket wheel. on shaft 22 drives a sprocket which turnsshaft 23 which in turn operates all of the vertical cutters by means ofbevel or miter gears 24 and 25. The shaft 23 is journaled in bearingsmounted on beam l8a.

Referring to Figure 1,- it will be seen that the casters 3 may bepressed down with respect to the frame by turning th handwheel 26, towhich is attached the screw 21. Thus the elevation of the front ofmachine, including the bottoms of the vertical cutters l9, and thebottom of rotor 4 above the roadway or pavement to be cleared of snowmay be adjusted. The cutters I! are made to operate as close to orcloser to the pavement than the rotor 4, and they have no shoe orhearing beneath them, so that instead of riding upon the snow they cutthe snow away. This is especially important in the middle of the machinewhere the casing extends entirel around the rotor and therefore hastended to ride up on previous machines in which this element is absent.As will be seen in Figures 1 and 3, the

' lower bearing 28 for the vertical cutter shaft is some distance abovethe bottom of the cutter, and the bottom of each cutter terminates in aplate 29 shown in the sectional view, Figure 6, tending to saw thepacked snow at the bottom leve I It will further be observed that, asshown in Figures 3 and 6, the two vertical cutters near the middle ofthe machine, in front" of the thrower casing, mesh with one another andturn in opposite directions, so as to throw the cut snow away from infront of the thrower casing, so that it will enter the rotor on eachside there,- of. The outer cutters, if used, also turn in oppositedirections and throw the snow into the space where the main rotor casingis open in front.

The use of vertical cutters at the side of the machine is not broadlynew, an early example of such use being shown in Patent 1,393,935 toBekkerus, who shows cutters having in general helical blades of greatpitch. The driving mechanism shown therein is also-somewhat similar tothat described herein, but the bearing arrangement is different, thearrangement of Bekkerus and of all other devices for the purpose ofcutting the side banks in this manner known to me having a bottombearing. There is usually also a stifiening member or shoe to "nated,one purpose being'to cut chine must ride, thus elevating reinforce thebottom bearing so that this part of the device may actually slide on thesnow or the subgrade. In this invention, any such bottombearing, shdingmember, or shoe is elimithe snow at a verylow'level so as not to "leaveanything upon which other parts of the machine must ride or the wheelsof the truck which pushes the mathe front of the machine above them orpavement upon which itisdesiredtooperataw i l "While the use of suchmembers atthe, sides of the machine in front is not basically new, theuse: of such members in the middle of the machine to permit thefullclosingof the thrower rotor at that point is broadly new and it is alsonew to mesh the vertical cutters into one another at "that point so thatthey operate in co-' operation with one another, clearing a pathimmediately in frontof the closedportion of the casing for the fullheight thereof, so that bulldozing in front of the machine, which is aserious obstacle in the design shown in the James patent referred toheretofore, is entirely elimi- I noted. And in addition to this, thecompacted or frozen snow in front of the machine is desiccated so thatit remains in the properly divided state to be accelerated suitabl inthe thrower rotor.

As already mentioned and as clearly indicated in the drawings, the rearportion of the thrower rotor, substantially one-half thereof, isprovided with a casingia and the front portion of the rotor iscased onlyin the middle by the member ll which, as will -be observed, is not ofuniform width but is wider at the top than at the bottom. Plates Iliaform side walls for the member I! and have semi-circular cut-outs of thesame radius as, conveyor. screws 5. The discharge opening I! for thecasing is shown in vertical se'dtion in Figure 4 where it will be notedthat at aboutthe point marked A the casing for the thrower openingmarked B diverges from. the other portion of the casing which'is shownin detached lines and marked C, so that radial acceleration of the snowwhen in the rotor begins to take place at the point marked A, and veryappreciable acceleration has actually occurred before the middle of thethrower blades reaches the horizontal position indicated by D. Theresult of this is that a larger portion of the snow thrown attains thevertical maximum velocity or peripheral speed of the thrower bladea-andit is possible to discharge a larger quantity through the rotor than ifthe acceleration were permitted to take place at the elevation D insteadof lower down as at A.. Not only is the capacity of the rotor forthrowing purposes thus increased, but the efllciency. of the device isfurther increased and the throw of a machine built in this way ispractically continuous instead of intermittent-the discharge from oneblade commencing before that from another is discontinued. This can bereadily understood by considering the construction of the rotor shown inFigure 5 in connection with Figure 4. t

Figure 5 shows but one pair of screws oppositely disposed, theright-hand screw being shown on the is right hand side and the left-handscrew on the left. hand side, these merging into a central radial blade30 shortly ahead of the point at which the two screws would meet ifcontinued. As shown in Figure 5, this closure blade is very narrow atthe periphery of the rotor. It is not desirable to make it any widerthan necessary to be handled by 'fposition of the snow material whic Q 3pass hard lum ofmateriah principally rdreign may havexaccumulated on thepavement and isharder than sno such as boulders which may enter themachine in actual operation. If some such blade were not placed there toprevent this, but the screws were brought togethenlarge solid fragmentscould accumulate let lithrough which the snow is to be thrown, a

so that most of the snow to b thrown does not come in contact with theblade at all but is thrown from the space between the screws where theirperiphery is much further apart. In fact, thewidth of the space betweenthe screws from which the material can be thrown is limited only by thewidth of the outlet opening. It will be furth r observed that the blade30 is at its periphery sub tantially at right angles to the direction ofrotation, but at its inner edge is tangential to the tube 8 upon whichthe screws are mounted so that material to be thrown tends to slideupward and outward on the blade 30 and thus assist, complete discharge.

The result of these improvements over former practice is, as has beenstated before, that the discharge from this rotor is'practicallycontinuous regardless of the number of pairs of screws used. Three pairsof screws are indicated on the drawings, but the machine will functionvery satisfactor'ily with only two pairs of screws, and a larger numbermay be used if desirable on a larger machine. If only one pair of screwsis used, the-discharge, when the machine is loaded to capacity, in drysnow, still is continuous, though somewhat pulsating. The limitation inthe number of screws that may be used is not fixed by the throwingcapacity of the rotor but by the space between the outer edges whichlimits the size of a fragment which can be conveyed by the screw. Forinstance, if thisspace in a full sized machine were six inches-that isto say, the pitch of the screws. were six inches-it would not bepossible for a fragment larger than six inches in its shortest dimensionto enter the screw and to the machine, .A larger fragment would have tobe cut into smaller fragments before it could enter; and, of course, ifthe materiai to be thrown were a foreign material such as a piece oftimber, it would not be possible to pass it. This is a practicalconsideration that must be borne in mind in designing a machine for anyspecific service.

It will further be noted on examining the drawings that these screws arepaired and not staggered with relation to one another as in the case ofJames, and that regardless of the size or shape of the member 3d,material conveyed toward the center can only escape peripherally; itcannot be passed from one side. of the machine to the other. This is adistinct advantage for it will not only be observed from examining thedesign. but is actually found in practice that this machine operateswith equal eiiectiveness regardless of the pile in front of it which itis required to remove. It does not tend to throw the snow from one sideof the machine to the other, and if it is working on one side of asnowbank, would throw the snow Just aswell asii it were working with asn'owbank in the middle of the front of it or on the other side.

Figure 2A shows the closure member Id of the casingia. The outlet I 4therein is adapted to to that of the outlet, preferably square. The Iduct may be so disposed over the outlet as to discharge forwardly or toeither side. Regardless of its position, the duct has a tight flt the 4outlet.

As already pointed out, the rotor is so designed a that the entireperiphery of the thrower member can be filled with snow except where itis being cast outward through the outlet I 4; that is to say, if theoutlet were-closed the snow would be conveyed into the rotor 'from bothsides until the space within the rotor were entirely filled and then asthe rotation continued the packed snow or ice inside the rotor wouldturn around as a n wheel of ice. Instead of this, when-the outlet fromrotor is open, all of the snow that can escape through the outlet duringthe rotation so escapes, and thisis suiilcient to keep the snow frompacking tightly in the other part of the rotor. In that part of therotor which is adia- -cent the thrower opening, the rotor may beentirely filled with snow around its entire periphery and such snow asis not conveyed far enough towardv the center of the thrower to escapethrough the thrower opening is carried around in the rotor and slidesagainst the front closure I! of the casing, while doing so moving towardthe center of the rotor so that it is cast when it comes in front of theoutlet. In order to make this feature effective, the closure member iiat the upper portion thereof is made somewhat wider than the dischargeoutlet and at the bottom where it joins therear casing it is made ofsubstantially the same width as the thrower outlet so that the, openingfor snow to enter the rotor from in front is wider at the bottom thanhigher up. It is fo -throwing material and the eiiiciency 0f the 7machine as a whole.

It will be noted from the foregoing description that the construction ofthe various members and their means of cooperation is such that there isno tendency for the material to be packed from the time it is firstengagedby one of the cutting meme bers until it'is passed entirelythrough the device and thrown. If the material to be thrown is cold, itwill be cut up into fragments which remain sepstate and are of such sizethat they can readily pass through all of the'openings without clog ing.Ifizfijlll further be observed that the material once engaged by thethrower rotor, even outside of the thrower casing proper,will begradually accelerated in the direction of peripheral rotaton of therotor as it is moved toward the center of the ma-' chine and thedischarg opening, some of this material when the machine is operated tocapacity, being carried entirely around the front of the casing of thethrower rotor before it reaches the asset-12s element there is no"batting of the material; the whole process of acceleration is gradual.

It will further be observed that the construction is such as to enablethe machine to cut a path to practically uniform depth throughout thewidth of the machine, the cutting being as close to the pavement to becleared of material'as safety will permit, and that to adapt it tovarious conditions -of roadway the adjustment of the elevation of thecutting elements is provided for. v

The advantages of my invention have been enumerated hereinabove, for themost part, and need not be repeated here. From what has been stated,however, it will be apparent that the invention provides a mow-removalapparatus of simple construction which is highly eflicient in collectingsnow from a roadway or the like and dischargin it through a deliveryduct. The apparatus is capable of operating under a variety ofconditions and requires no special skill in its operation. The apparatusis also capable of cutting the snow very close to the actual grade ofthe roadway or other surface.

Although I have shownbut a preferred form of apparatus, it will beunderstood that the invention may be otherwise embodied by changes inthe design or arrangement of the elements without de-' parting from thespirit of theinventionor the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a snow-removal apparatus, a frame adapted to move along a roadwayor the like, a rotor Journaled transversely at the forward end of the.frame including one or more pairs of conveyor screws adapted to movesnow from both ends toward the middle, the two members of each pairformingclosure with one another at the middle, a substantiallysemi-cylindrical casing extending around the rear side of said screws,-witha pcripheral discharge outlet in the middle thereof, and' asemi-cylindrical closure wall enclosing the front of said rotor oppositeto said peripheral discharge outlet, said frame including a beamextending longitudinally of the rotor and disposedforwardly thereof, anda pair of vertical rotary discharge opening. This gradual accelerationand the/ practically continuous discharge from the space between thescrews makes it possible to attain a much higher efficiency of thedevice as a thrower so that lesspower is taken to throw a given amountof material. It'will further be observed that the design having acontinuous instead of an intermittent discharge and being capable ofloading the thrower element to its capacityfis able to handle a muchgreater volume 01' material than any machine in which the throwerelements are paddle-like and the throwingdeflnitely intermittent. Inthis device in the thrower 75 cutters mounted on said beam in front ofsaid front closure wall to divert snow to each side thereof.

- 2. In snow-removal apparatus a frame adapted to move along a roadway,a rotor with right-hand and left-hand conveyor screws journaled inthefront end of said frame and adapted to convey snow toward its middle.portions and there cast it upwardly, a casing for said rotor'enclosingthe wardlyextending discharge outlet passage atits middle portion, asubstantially semicircular closure for the middle portion of the frontof said rotor opposite the discharge outlet passage, said frameincluding a beam extending longitudinally of the rotor anddisposedforwardly thereo and a pair of vertical cutters mounted on said eam,meshing with one another and rotating in opposite directions, to clearsnow from the space in front of said front closure portion.

3. In snow-removal apparatus a frame adapted to move along a roadway; arotor with right-hand and left-hand conveyor screws journaled in thefront end of said frame and adapted to convey snow toward its middleportions and there cast it upwardly, a casing for said rotor enclosingthe rear half of said rotor and provided with an upwardly extendingdischarge outlet passage at its middle portion, a substantiallysemicircular closure for the middle portion of the front of said rearhalf of-said rotor and provided with an upa pair of vertical cuttersmounted on said beam,

meshing with one another and rotating in opposite directions, to clearsnow from the space in front of said front closure portion, said frontclosure being wider at the top than at the bottom. v

4. In a snow-removal apparatus, a traveling frame, a rotor. journaledhorizontally therein adapted both to convey snow axially and throw itradially, a casing enclosing the rear side and a portion of the frontside of said rotor, a portion of said frame extending forwardly of saidrotor and vertical cutters Journaled in said portion of the frame anddisposed in frontof the front portion of said casing to divert snowtherefrom to open spaces in front of said rotor, said vertical cuttershaving bottom cutting edges at substantially the same level as the loweredges of said 5. In a snow-removal apparatus, a frame adapted to movealong a roadway or the like, a rotor journaled transversely near theforward end .of said frame, the rotor including acylindrical core withspaced screw conveyor flights thereon, said flights being paired, rightand left handed screws forming closure for each pair at substantiallythe I middle of the rotor, thus adapted to move snow a portion of saidframe extending forwardly of said rotor and a pair of vertical rotarycutters journaled in said portion of the frame and disposed ahead ofsaid front closed casing, the bottom of said cutters being substantiallyat the same level as the lower edge of said first-mentioned casing.

WILLIAM MAYO VENAELE.

